Vixen Versus Devil
by Black Sheep of Death
Summary: A one-shot scenario for how the one-sided rivalry between Kunoichi and Hanzo could have begun... Not a romance unless you use a microscope.


A one-shot scenario for how this one-sided rivalry between Kunoichi and Hanzo could have begun...

Vixen Versus Devil

If killing this girl wasn't more trouble than it was worth, Hattori Hanzo would have done the deed by now. She wasn't so much annoying as simply an unwanted distraction; and as in this case, her mere presence and the force of her personality was killing the silence of the night. His night.

"Leave."

The man stood ramrod straight, arms crossed, atop the gilded corner of a roof. It was a moonless night, which was the reason he was in that specific city in the first place. Intelligence-gathering. It was a job usually left to his genins, but anything to do with Nobunaga Oda had to be dealt with delicately, and so, he'd come himself on the darkest night of the month. The information was collected quickly and efficiently, and he would have managed a flawless escape, too, if it hadn't been for a sudden attack at his flank as he darted across the rooftops. Now Hanzo and the familiar attacker both were standing at an impasse from opposite corners of a city building. And what was the reason for the assault?

"Not until we find out who's the better ninja." It was said in a chirpy tone. "I've been waiting for this moment ever since I saw you fighting my Lord Yukimura. Lord Yukimura's good, but you're not bad yourself."

Ah, he remembered now. So she was not a retainer to Nobunaga, but the Sanada boy? Hanzo hadn't been detected by the demon's henchmen. Yet.

"Too dazzled by my beauty to even speak, are you?" she chattered. "Ahh, that's understandable. I'll say it again, then. Let's fight!"

The kunoichi's grin flashed in the barest reflection of the torchlights. While Hanzo's suit allowed him to meld in with the darkness like a shadow, a proper shinobi, hers was a garish outfit in comparison, with hues of white and pink that put one in mind of a field of flowers. It was her choice of style that made him sneer upon his first glance at her across the roof. She claimed to be a shinobi, yet she couldn't even follow that one rule of the assassin's code: Make yourself invisible to your enemies. She wasn't even wearing a mask, just a ridiculous poofy hat. What happened to Conceal Your Identity? And her stance; she wasn't slouching, but her posture was reminiscent of a woman surveying a stall at the marketplace. She didn't look the least bit serious. And she was Sanada's sub-general?

"Come on," she urged him. "You and me. Right here and now. A one-on-one match!"

Hanzo's expression was indetectable under his mask, but his grey eyes did narrow in derision.

"You cannot hope to defeat me."

"Yeah, yeah." The kunoichi put her hands on her hips. "You'd better not be underestimating me, Mr. Shadow-in-the-Night-"

But Hanzo had already left, a blur of black that left his previous spot on the roof empty as if he'd never been there at all. He thought he'd left the kunoichi behind in his dust; however, four buildings later, a shuriken flashed through the darkness and he knocked it away with a quick-draw of his sickle. Looking towards the buildings across the street revealed the kunoichi to be catching up to his stride. The fact that she could keep up with his pace was enough for him to consider that there was more to this perky woman than met the eye and he kept his weapon drawn, this time in preparation for a close-up fight.

Another knife flew towards him, but it only cut through air. Hanzo had sped up. At that, the kunoichi became a white and pink blur as well. She darted along an overhanging flagpole and leaped the distance of the street to clash her twin kunai down into his kusarigama. There was a metallic crunch as their weapons locked up, and then both broke away at the same time to gain some distance to regroup. Their feet slid silently along wood and then they came at each other again with the roar of scraping metal, again and again.

The kunoichi looked like she was enjoying the battle intensely; the wide grin never left her face. Hanzo kept his expression tense beneath his mask; and though his grey eyes had hardened with interest at just who this child was, really, he still didn't intend to follow through with such a silly little game.

"Not too shabby," the kunoichi remarked during another lull in their fight. "You not getting tired yet, are ya?" She blinked. "Huh-? Where'd you g- Eep!"

She spun around just in time to bend backwards, avoiding a beheading from his sickle, and backflipped until she was again at a relatively safe distance.

"…Pathetic." Hanzo lifted his weapon, chains slinking with a smooth metallic sound. "One such as you cannot keep up with a shadow."

"Shadow, huh?" she scoffed. Her confidence was completely unfazed by that inelegant dodge. "I'm a ninja, too, remember? If you're a 'shadow,' then what am I?"

"A clown."

"A what?"

"Over there!" someone shouted from nearby.

Both shinobi glanced down to see a group of guards rushing towards their position. The sounds of their fight had probably been heard almost completely across this entire side of town. There went Hanzo's flawless escape.

"Oops! Looks like funtime is over for now. Let's do this again, sometime, 'kay? See ya!" The kunoichi waved cheekily at him before leaping away across the rooftops. Several guards saw her fleeing and promptly began giving chase.

"You! What are you doing up there?" one of the remaining guards demanded.

"The shadow vanishes without a trace…"

"Archers, shoot him down!" the guardsman barked.

But he was already gone.

* * *

I will admit, I think this pair would be totally sexy; but I don't want to risk ruining the images in my head with an incompetent romantic story. :P

Don't see myself continuing this in the future. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!

(( But seriously, why are there no fics of this pairing? ))

~Black Sheep of Death


End file.
